COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State women’s soccer team dropped a 2-1 double overtime contest Friday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Lisa Collison recorded her team leading seventh goal for the Buckeyes. Ohio State (3-5-2; 0-3-0 Big Ten), which had not dropped a regular season home match since 2003, will try for the weekend split when it plays host to Iowa at 1 p.m. Sunday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

“I couldn’t ask for my team to play any harder,” Lori Walker, head coach said. “This was a completely different team than last week. It was an exciting game for the crowd with a lot of scoring opportunities.”

Although Ohio State was outshot 12-5 in the first half, the Buckeyes had several opportunities to take the lead, including a Collison (Fr., Niagara Falls, Ontario/Burlington Flames) breakaway at 29:40 that caused Illinois goalkeeper Lindsey Carstens to come out of the six-yard box. Collison fired the shot toward the goal, but Carstens was able to register the block. Sophomore Lara Dickenmann (Kriens, Switzerland/Sursee) nearly got the Buckeyes on the board in the 25th minute when her breakaway shot was snagged by the Illini keeper. Staci Sinkway (So., Mission Viejo, Calif./So Cal Blues), who received her third-consecutive start for Ohio State tallied three saves to Carstens’ two at the end of the half.

The Buckeyes missed a scoring opportunity at the 57:32 mark in the second half when a shot by Collison just cleared the crossbar. However, Collison turned another shot attempt into a score after Danielle Dietrich (Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio/Kolping) found the Niagara Falls, Ontario, native near the 18-yard box. Collison drew Carstens out of the goalkeeper box and knocked in a slow roller just over the goal line. Illinois answered with the tying score at 76:38 when Eva Strickland headed a shot from the left side of the 18 yard line. With the score even at 1-1 at the end of regulation, the Buckeyes and Fighting Illini were forced into overtime. Both teams had seven shots and Sinkway notched four saves to Carstens’ one. Neither team was able to score the golden goal in the first overtime, but the Buckeyes came close after Collison, who compiled eight shots, including three on goal, had a open shot blocked by an Illinois defender. With time winding down in the extra period, the game went into a second overtime, where Illinois’ Charlotte Cooke shot a ball that rolled into the right corner of the OSU goal with a little more than one minute (1:02) remaining in the match.

For the game, Ohio State had 14 shots compared to Illinois’ 23. Sinkway ended the night with nine saves to Carstens’ four and the Fighting Illini held the corner kicks advantage, 6-1.